Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I'm so excited that registration is here! The Magic of Christmas, hosted by Terri Brush, runs Nov. 1 - Nov. 8 (2 projects per day). However, videos will be available on the site until May, just to clarify.

16 projects by 8 artists for the low price of $49.99. You really can't beat that price. I haven't seen all the projects, but I know they will be great and I really hope you love mine as much as I do.

A little housekeeping to keep everything straight:

1) You must establish a free account in the Academy at www.terribrushacademy.com. This is where the event will be hosted, and the only way for them to view each project.

2) On October 15th, we will begin sending invitations to join the event, in the Academy, to the email address associated with their payment. (Students will not be added to the event, prior to October 15th.)

3) The only features available to students on October 15th will be the supply lists as our event begins on November 1st. On November 1st, at approximately 12am CST 2 projects with instructions will be posted/made live. We will continue posting 2 projects each day, through November 8th.

I will be teaching 2 projects. Project one is called Misfit Snowmen and I will show you how to make these cute little snowmen characters. And we will be soldering little boxes for project 2, which I call Heritage Ornaments. Hope you will join in on the fun!

Thursday, October 2, 2014

I'm excited to announce that I will be joining some fabulous artists (8 of us total!) over at Terri Brush Academy to teach 2 online holiday projects. You can check out the details here. Registration begins Oct. 15th. The event is a steal at $49.99 for all 16 projects and you have til May to access the videos. You have to join the Academy first (free to join) to have access to the workshops.

I will be teaching two projects. One is a soldering project called, "Heritage Ornaments" in which we will solder a small box to house an item of your choice. I will walk you through soldering and offer suggestions of things to put inside your ornament.

The other project is using clay and we will creating fun and funky little "Misfit Snowmen". I love making these fun little guys. They make great little gifts to wrap up and give to teacher, friends or for that unexpected gift you need in a hurry.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

So my Aussie traveling partner in crime, Seth, (Seth-o!), is doing a blog post party today encouraging bloggers to show off pictures off their "real time" worktables. While the magazines that show off studios are quite beautiful, they seem quite "pristine" without a hair out of my place. I know others looked at the magazines and wish for such beautiful studios. But while beautiful, it is unrealistic to portray normal, average working studios as that pristine. While I would certainly love for my studio to be showcased in such a magazine, I'm pretty certain, I would have to do a lot of tidying up and removing a lot of my "beloved clutter"; which doesn't really make it my studio then!

Anyway, hop over to Seth's blog to see the lists of participants and pictures of their "working studios". Here are my pics (but keep in mind that I gave it a good cleaning before leaving for Australia and haven't had whole lot of time since returning to aptly mess it back up!

this was early this morning

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this was later in the evening after working all day on a few projects (please note THE BEER). Not sure I've seen that in a studio mag before!) So this is the table where I paint. I do tend to keep it pretty clean as I like a lot of free space on my table while painting. It's easy to keep pretty tidy by keeping my paints to the side in the wheeled caddy and my paint brushes in containers behind me.

This is my jewelry workstation. It is always a mess for some reason. Maybe because there are so many small components needed. I'll deal with this later.........

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and this is the table where my projects go into que while waiting to be finished. I do a lot of things in stages or run out of time and then they are in "que" til I get back to them or figure out how the heck I want to finish them up. It always looks cluttered.

Pretty much I keep the floor of my studio quite tidy. For some reason a dirty floor drives me insane, so I do sweep it alot, get papers off the floor, etc.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

I'll admit it, I've lost my desire to blog. It seems like so many steps in comparison to just updating my status on facebook with photos, art or clever musings (or so I think anyway.....). But after spending a month in Australia with fellow blogger, Seth Apter (nicknamed, Setho), of The Altered Page, I've decided to give it a go again.

However, my first attempt just ended up erased and I just realized that I have no photos on my computer yet, relating to my recent trip. Well darn, no wonder I tend to give up so easily. So be sure and click on the link for Seth's blog, because he's got a lot of great pictures from our Australia trip up already!

Seth, Michael and Andrea DeMeng and I participated in the Australia Roadshow for Art -is- You. In case you aren't aware, AIY, is an art retreat that I have been teaching with for many years (2015 is their 10 year anniversary)! After Sallianne (she and Ellen run AIY) moved back to Australia, it was her dream to bring out some of her United States and Canada instructors and spend time in various locations teaching our Australian friends. It was my first time there, so it was quite the adventure.

We rented a huge van that we nicknamed, "Walting Ma-til-duh" (was suppose to be Waltzing, but Michael misspelled it). It was packed to the hilt with luggage full of art supplies, boxes full of art supplies, containers full of art supplies and a few bottles of wine (heehee). Along the way, we picked up 2 other roadies, Lovely Linda and Miss Jeno-o. The rule was whoever sat in front was on lookout for Kangaroos or Koalas. We'd all scream when we saw some kangas, but sadly never saw a koala in the wild; apparently this is because they have become quite endangered :( But right before coming home, I did take a tour to a animal refuge where I did get to spend some time with the endearing koalas and the ever charming, wallaby's.

We spent a lot of time in that van driving all over Australia, through the bush, to the Sunshine Coast, over to Melbourne (St. Kilda) and a darling place called Rafferty's Resort in Mercure, 2 hours outside of Sydney.We spent our time in the van listening to music (cd's like Queen, soundtrack to Priscilla, Queen of the desert, Abba (of course) and others. We had many a sing along with Michael making goofy voices (like Donald Duck) to sing versus. We laughed alot. We also played a phone game where you pick a category, put the phone on your forehead and others give you a clue and you try and guess. That was hilarious. Quite possibly the worst player ever would be miss Jen-o. She sure came up with some great answers (that were no where close, haha). The big thrill would be to see who got a prezzie everytime Sallianne had to gas up. I think Michael got bath bubbles in the form of some macho plastic dude, Andrea got flipflops, don't remember what Seth got and I got a fishing lure (hey, you might see it in a piece of my art.....)

It was a lot colder there than I expected, even though it was winter (I just sort of thought, "it's Australia, how cold could it be?) However, it was a bit damp and overcast and they don't heat buildings like we do - so yes, it was a tad chilly at times (and I had only packed a light sweater, duh). Lucky I threw in some fingerless gloves and had bought a knit hat at the LAX airport due to Aussie fb friends telling us "how cold it was". But other times, although chilly, the sun shone bright and beautiful. Some where on the drive we even encountered a bit of snow.

Think i'll have to go over to my facebook page and hijack some photos for this post. be right back. ok, got a bunch of awesome pictures to show ya. these ought to keep you busy for a bit. We made a few stops at some of "Australia's Big Icons", like "dog on the tuckerbox", "the big banana" and "large Ram". They were quite amusing and we even bought a map of the icons to start checking them off.

Setho also has a second blog post up about the van ride. read it here.

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artist statement

Creating is my key to another time. It unlocks the gate to my secret garden; my refuge. It takes me to another era where things were simpler and I find the process soothing to my soul. Lemoncholy’s Studio began with my fondness for vintage items. Searching flea markets, I find items long forgotten, sometimes damaged, but still purposeful. They just need some love and attention. I want these found objects to tell a new story, have meaning and to be inspiring. I have a vision for them to begin again. Intuitively I combine elements in an enchanting way to provoke a narrative response that alludes to something we seek without knowing it. Often, it is a reminder of our childhood. My jewelry is about craftsmanship and virtue but not perfection. By removing perfectionism, I free my imagination to play and ultimately, this freedom results in whimsical pieces of grace and beauty. I am a grown up Navy brat and moved every 2 years of life. This education in life has well prepared for the journey i have chosen for myself. I am the mother of 2 boys, Tucker and Dillon. We live here at the jersey shore in our own little bohemian corner of the world.